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Date:      Tue, 16 Jul 2002 00:24:59 -0700 (PDT)
From:      David Schultz <dschultz@uclink.Berkeley.EDU>
To:        FreeBSD-gnats-submit@FreeBSD.org
Subject:   docs/40648: Confusing instructions for subscribing to mailing lists
Message-ID:  <200207160724.g6G7OxBj000546@HAL9000.wox.org>

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>Number:         40648
>Category:       docs
>Synopsis:       Confusing instructions for subscribing to mailing lists
>Confidential:   no
>Severity:       non-critical
>Priority:       low
>Responsible:    freebsd-doc
>State:          open
>Quarter:        
>Keywords:       
>Date-Required:
>Class:          change-request
>Submitter-Id:   current-users
>Arrival-Date:   Tue Jul 16 05:00:13 PDT 2002
>Closed-Date:
>Last-Modified:
>Originator:     David Schultz
>Release:        N/A
>Organization:
>Environment:
>Description:
http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/eresources.html

The first thing it says under the ``How to Subscribe'' heading is how
to send mail to the lists.  Many unalert readers seem to look at the
heading, then at the example address <listname@FreeBSD.ORG> and send
off a subscribe request to the wrong place.  This is annoying for
people who are already subscribed, and a big turn-off for potential
subscribers, whose requests are silently ignored.

A partial solution to this problem is to make the first thing under
``How to Subscribe'' say---you guessed it---how to subscribe.
>How-To-Repeat:
>Fix:
Index: chapter.sgml
===================================================================
RCS file: /home/ncvs/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/eresources/chapter.sgml,v
retrieving revision 1.87
diff -u -r1.87 chapter.sgml
--- chapter.sgml	2002/07/04 14:24:45	1.87
+++ chapter.sgml	2002/07/16 07:15:46
@@ -548,12 +548,6 @@
     <sect2 id="eresources-subscribe">
       <title>How to Subscribe</title>
       
-      <para>All mailing lists live on <hostid
-	  role="fqdn">FreeBSD.org</hostid>, so to post to a given list you
-	simply mail to
-	&lt;<replaceable>listname</replaceable>@FreeBSD.org&gt;.  It will then
-	be redistributed to mailing list members world-wide.</para>
-	  
       <para>To subscribe to a list, send mail to &a.majordomo; and include
 
 	<programlisting>subscribe &lt;listname&gt; [&lt;optional address&gt;]</programlisting>
@@ -564,6 +558,13 @@
       <screen>&prompt.user; <userinput>mail majordomo@FreeBSD.org</userinput>
 subscribe freebsd-announce
 ^D</screen>
+
+      <para>To actually post to a given list you
+	simply send mail to
+	&lt;<replaceable>listname</replaceable>@FreeBSD.org&gt;.  It will then
+	be redistributed to mailing list members world-wide.
+	<emphasis>Please note,</emphasis> subscription requests go to
+	&a.majordomo;, not the lists themselves.</para>
 	    
       <para>If you want to subscribe yourself under a different name, or
 	submit a subscription request for a local mailing list (this is more
>Release-Note:
>Audit-Trail:
>Unformatted:

To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org
with "unsubscribe freebsd-doc" in the body of the message




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